notice -- Cambridge Considered on Hiatus until April.

 Cambridge Considered will be on hiatus until April. Below is a teaser for the next post!

  I have found that trying to reduce Anne Hutchinson's story into a compact blog post is an even greater challenge than I first thought it would be.  I don't know if I will finish the post today, when it is scheduled to go up, so I'm leaving you with this teaser until I post the full entry.

    Some Cantabrigians believe that Anne Hutchinson, the religious dissenter who was among the first prominent settlers of Rhode Island, should also be credited with causing the Puritans to found Harvard. The General Court of Massachusetts decreed that there would be a school, then called “the College at New Towne,” in 1636. Anne Hutchinson's trial by the church leaders did not begin until 1637. However, until 1638, the school had no buildings, professors, or courses; it was merely an idea. That year, the year that John Harvard willed his library and half his fortune to the school, the first building was erected. Was Anne Hutchinson responsible for the transformation from idea to reality? The short answer, although some find it surprising, is yes. Of course, as with almost every historical question, the full story is more nuanced than yes or no.